NO SHOW, NO PROBLEM The new Audi e-tron Sportback is reported to have a net system power of 429 hp and a “boost mode” to rival Tesla’s Ludicrous setting.
Photo: Audi
THE PLAN WAS to fly into London, pick up a right-hand-drive McLaren GT at Woking, in Surrey, then drive to Geneva for the annual auto show’s press days, scheduled to begin Monday, March 2. Later I had arranged to take a Ferrari GTC4Lusso over the Alps to Maranello, Italy, for a tour of Ferrari’s new design studio with ace penholder Flavio Manzoni. I had also booked some seat time in the new Roma coupe at the company’s test track at Fiorano.
I got as far as Woking when word came: The 90th Geneva International Motor Show was canceled and Italy closed, in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus. It was certainly the right thing to do; even in non-plague years, the Geneva show is where East meets West, microbially—a seamy cesspool of unwashed hands and unavoidable handshakes.
Koenigsegg Gemera.
But I was bummed. There would have been wonders to behold, like Christian von Koenigsegg’s visionary Gemera (above): a lavishly upholstered four-seat, mid-engine ultracar with 1,670 hybrid-electric hp, built around a three-cylinder gasoline engine ventilated with Koenigsegg’s own digitally actuated valves.
At the unfinished VW stand at Palexpo, the company was preparing to reveal the production version of the ID.4, one of dozens of new EVs to be built on the MEB platform, upon which hangs the survival of the company and the continued prosperity of Lower Saxony.
Other can’t-miss premieres included the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, in a sedan, wagon, and a tall-wagon variant, a body-style MB calls “All Terrain.” Meanwhile, we learned, Hyundai staffers were buffing up a concept car called the Prophecy (below), an astonishing glassbown shape embodying a form language they call “Sensuous Sportiness.”
Lastly, I just had to see the BMW Concept i4, a near-production rendering of its would-be Tesla Model 3 competitor. Here the brand’s twin-kidney grille has morphed into what looks, in the pictures, like enlarged nostrils. BMW : If the future is electric, we’re blowing rails.
I sat by the fire in my hotel’s drawing room, watching rain lash the windows and listening to the tumbling thunder, like oil drums rolling down the golf course. Now what? It seemed a propitious moment to ruminate….
Auto shows are dying, fast and hard. Attendance at the biennial Frankfurt show fell from 931,000 in 2015 to 550,000 in 2019, according to its organizers, the German trade group VDA. Those numbers likely reflect German car buyers’ sour mood, post-Dieselgate.
“ Auto shows are dying, fast and hard, as attendance plummets world-wide. ”
The malaise was mutual. A score of auto makers skipped Frankfurt in 2019, according to the newspaper Automobilwoche, including giants like Citroën, Fiat-Jeep, Mazda, Nissan, Peugeot, Toyota and Volvo. For 2021, the German industry’s home show will move to Munich.
Some shows are trying to reinvent themselves, post-Peak Car. Detroit’s annual show dwindled for years, in both attendance and newsmakers, until finally the event was rescheduled, from January to June, and from dreary Cobo Center to a new riverfront venue with other attractions. That should help.
For various reasons, Geneva has remained an exception. It is a smaller show, more compact—exclusive, if you like. And since Switzerland is where many UHNWI keep their money, the tire-kickers go exceptionally well-heeled. Among the exotic wares missing their moment this week were the new Aston Martin V12 Speedster and Vantage Roadster; the Bentley Mulliner Bacalar; and McLaren 765LT.
Geneva had been the last bastion of auto-show ballyhoo—silk-sheet reveals with dancers and deafening EDM, heroic brand montages on screens five-stories tall. I’ve seen Cirque du Soleil acrobats flying over the aisles, flame-swallowers, wandering molecular chefs, magicians, marching bands, and every raccoon-eyed waif and gamine between the Algarve and Lombardy.
Hyundai Prophecy concept.
Photo: HyundaiAuto makers discovered there were cheaper, easier ways to reach the multitudes—Instagram, for instance. In an effort to stay ahead of social media, PR departments began releasing auto show materials early, days or even weeks before the show, under embargoes that were more often observed in the breach.
This has only made press days even more redundant, more an exercise in group stenography.
What happened next was unexpected but, in retrospect, inevitable and sort of wonderful, like the spontaneous mutation of an organism whose environment had radically changed. Before my tea was cold I got a notice from GIMS organizers saying that, in light of the circumstances, they had arranged a Virtual Press Day. They had asked exhibitors to video record or live stream their press conference presentations and premieres at their home studios. These long-form videos are available online (gimsvirtualpressday.ch).
Brilliant! That means, dear reader, that we can still walk through the Geneva show together, hand in hand and you don’t even need Purell. As a bonus, many of the live streams include thoughtful and relaxed Q&As with designers, engineers and executives, amounting to better access than one could expect on the day of the show.
There’s a certain accidental logic to the outcome. In every corner of the globe, the auto industry is being compelled to address sustainability and reduce carbon emissions. Given that, how much sense does it make for hundreds, even thousands of journalists and media to fly to Switzerland, producing millions of pounds of carbon pollution, just so the industry can tout its greener technologies? May all your press days be virtual.
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Is Coronavirus the Beginning of the End for Global Auto Shows? - The Wall Street Journal
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